The present invention relates to racks or analogous frameworks, especially to racks which can be used to store, support and/or confine luggage, skis and other commodities on the roofs of automotive vehicles or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in frameworks of the type wherein one or more crosspieces or traverses are secured to a plurality of bars or analogous carriers which, in turn, are or may be permanently or separably secured to the roof of an automotive vehicle or the like. The vehicle which is or can be provided with a framework of the just outlined character may constitute a road vehicle or another type of vehicle, e.g., a watercraft.
It is already known to provide the roof of a vehicle, e.g., a road vehicle of the type known as a caravan vehicle, with a pair of elongated bars or analogous carriers which extend in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, i.e., in parallelism with the direction of forward movement, and form part of a framework or rack that further includes one or more transversely extending traverses or crosspieces. The carriers can be permanently or separably mounted on the roof of the vehicle and each traverse is separably or permanently mounted on the carriers to serve as a support and/or as a confining means for luggage, skis and/or other bulky commodities which cannot be readily stored in the trunk and/or in the passenger compartment of the conveyance. The traverse or traverses may constitute discrete components of the rack or they may form part of receptacles which, in turn, serve for storage of suitcases or the like. Road vehicles with carriers in the form of bars which are parallel to the direction of forward movement and are permanently installed on the roof of the vehicle include the so-called T-models of the German automobile firm Daimler Benz as well as the AMC Spirit Sedan 81, Chrysler LeBaron Wagon 81 and the Plymouth Volare Wagon 81.
A drawback of present known racks or frameworks of the above outlined character is that the mounting of traverse on and/or the detachment of traverse from the carriers takes up too much time and that the traverse are likely to become loose. Moreover, the mounting of traverses is not burglarproof so that an unauthorized person can readily detach the traverses from the carriers and get away with the suitcases, skis and/or other commodities which are not directly and non-removably secured to the permanently installed carriers. Furthermore, the detachable traverses of presently known frameworks or racks are not likely to remain in selected positions and they are often configurated in such a way that they offer excessive resistance to forward movement of the vehicle. The just outlined drawbacks are present regardless of whether the frameworks are installed on the roofs of road vehicles, watercraft or other types of conveyances.